Or, at least one of the Bar Exam is next week. The last one, so to speak. (Edit -I was informed FL is even later!) It’s been a crazy ride and I know that you are all exhausted. We, as Academic Success Professionals, are exhausted as well, and we see you and hear you.
It’s been rough, and there have been many hiccups, and on that – I have no advice.
However, I CAN give you some advice on how to spend your final week before the exam.
- Do something for yourself: Even if it means taking an afternoon or two off, do something for yourself. This is going to look different for everyone; it could be going for a run, binging a silly tv show, or spending some (socially distanced) time with friends or family. The point is that you are taking your mind off of the exam, and off of the law. Your brain needs this break so that you can be your best on exam day. My suggestion is to take Sunday afternoon and to do whatever you can to make yourself happy.
- Get enough rest: I’m not trying to mother you, I promise, and science will back me up. You need enough rest to do well on the exam. Start making sure you are getting enough sleep as early as Friday night. On a side note, also make sure you are eating well. Your brain needs fuel! And speaking of rest, that brings me to my next point.
- Don’t cram, or learn brand new material: Don’t stay up all night studying, or push yourself to your limit. You’ve already been pushed to your limit, and you don’t need to pack in that many more hours of study, especially at the expense of sleep. Instead, focus on what you do know, and perfecting that! Now is not the time to do a crazy amount of practice essays. Now is the time to work on fine tuning what you know. Maybe outline essays, so you are more comfortable with rule statements, or do very small sets of MBE questions. In fact, it’s a great time to redo old MBE questions that were wrong, and really make sure you learned from that question.
- Work on memory: Now is the time to memorize details, whether they be requirements for various hearsay exceptions, scrutinies for constitutional law, or something else. You don’t need to memorize everything, it’s ok. But take the time to memorize the things where exact wording is important. Do so in small chunks. Your brain can really only handle memorizing for about 5 minutes. So, work on memorization techniques in between doing other things. This is also why outlining essays can be useful, as it’s a great way to work on memory AND issue spotting.
- Don’t be afraid to make things up!: No really, make things up. I promise if you need to make up a rule it won’t be that absurd. You have a law degree, and you’ve been studying for this exam for what feels like forever – whatever your brain makes up will be close to accurate, I promise. Not every rule statement has to be exact, or perfectly worded. And, making up a rule and putting forth a well thought out analysis is much better than not tackling an issue.
- Be confident, and be kind to yourself: Finally – you got this! Be confident. You have a JD, and I promise, that means you know more than you think. Remind yourself that you are capable, and knowledgeable, and that you CAN do this. And, if this bar administration didn’t work out for you, and you had to delay, that’s ok as well. Similarly, if you don’t get the news you want in terms of results, remind yourself that this Summer and Fall have been hard on all of you, and you need to cut yourself some slack.
I can’t wait to have all of you as colleagues.
(Melissa Hale)
